The bad weather forced us out of the mountains!

We had planned to stay at Cool Pines Campground for three days, because that was the maximum number days they offer the half-price Passport America rate. We loved it there with the daily wild horse, deer, and elk sightings, and would have liked to stay longer. But the April weather changed, and forced us out of the mountains.

The forecast called for wind gusts of 80 miles per hour, and a low temperature of 17 degrees. Our motor home doesn't do well with either one of those numbers! So we had to head out of the mountains and into the valley for a couple days. We had planned to leave Cloudcroft to head into the mountains around Ruidoso, New Mexico. So we had ignored the signs on Highway 82 that warned of the steep down-hill grades between Cloudcroft's 8,650 foot elevation and Alamogordo's 4,335 feet. Those warnings about brakes and heavy loads now applied to the highway we had to head down in the wind.

The winds were only around 25 miles per hour when we left the top of the mountain. We were a little glad that we soon caught up with a wide load that was going very slow on these steep and winding roads. We obviously couldn't pass him, and we weren't in a hurry to get down.

When we looked for a last-minute place to camp in the valley, we were blessed to find another Passport America campground. Mountain Meadows Campground had one opening for the next two nights and so we reserved it in a hurry. We found that their mascot was the mountain quail. These birds with the curious top notch like to hang out with the resident dove at the bird feeder. Denisa spent some time trying to get a good picture of their beautiful feathers before the wind picked up in the valley.

While the forecast for this evening and tomorrow looked terrible, we decided to take a hike before that cold front arrived. 

We found a 6.6-mile loop (Alamo Canyon and Roundup Ground Mountain Trail) that left from the foot of the mountains that line the southern edge of Alamogordo. We gained 1,300 feet in elevation as we hiked up this steep section. It was one of the climbs that we had to push to go up another 100 steps, and then paused until our heart rates slowed enough for another 100 steps.

It was dry in the valley, where the cactus were even sunburned red.

We ate our picnic at the top of the climb, while we enjoyed some shade and the taller mountains that stretched out ahead of us.

The mountains in the distance are the tallest in central New Mexico, so they host telescopes like the Sunspot Observatory that we visited earlier.

We chose this hike because the reviews mentioned that elk and deer are often spotted in this remote area. We can't say that the high traffic scared them away, as we didn't see another hiker in the four and half hours we were on the trail. Our wildlife count was zero if we didn't count the glimpses of two little lizards. 

We did spot miles of metal pipes throughout our hike. This pipe headed straight down the mountain beside us.

Later we read that much of Alamogordo's water is piped from a source that is miles from town. There's a few leaks in those pipes, and desert cactus have taken up residence on the old pipes.

We wouldn't recommend the Alamo Canyon Loop. Without any wildlife, it was a boring walk through the cactus with little interest. But we did have blue skies and nice temperatures and little wind, and we got some good exercise. 

All those things changed a few hours later. The blue skies turned to white as the wind kicked up to 40-50 miles per hour and brought all the white sand into the valley skies. While we were parked at Mountain Meadows Campground, we could no longer tell that there were any mountains close by.  Everything was just a wall of white around us as the motor home swayed in the wind. Likewise, the temperature plummeted and we got remarkably colder. So we got absolutely no exercise, as we huddled inside the motor home for the entire next day. On a day like that we're glad to have a sizable motor home that is comfortable to stay inside for 24 hours straight. We had to be flexible when the weather changed our plans to stay in the mountains. We end this blog with a picture from yesterday's desert hike when this heart-shaped cactus reminds us that we still love wandering His wonders--even when the bad weather forced us out of the mountains!